


eyes wide like you've never seen the ocean

by nirav



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 06:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12929040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirav/pseuds/nirav
Summary: tumblr prompt: "Alex has a Christmas party to go to and needs a date but can't bring anyone from National City so obviously Sara Lance is her only option"





	eyes wide like you've never seen the ocean

 

 _eyes wide like you've never seen the ocean, never seen the tides_  
_no hope, now you're seeing things that you'd lost sight of_  
_taking off, got your hands in the air and you're feeling alright_  
_gold vines glistening on my skin for you_

 

* * *

 

 

_You’re still coming right?_

The text dings onto her phone at 8:15 in the morning on the Tuesday before Christmas, just after Alex has made her way from the locker room to her lab.  A collection of emojis follows just after it, and alternating tapestry of poinsettias and martini glasses.  

It’s from Jackie, one of the cadre of queer woman Maggie had introduced her to when they were dating, and a dull ache pushes at the back of her sternum.  Alex types out a _Probably not_ but her phone beeps again before she can send it, Jackie’s _Maggie pulled a stakeout shift so you don’t have any excuses_.  

“Crap.”

 _I’ll come by_ , she sends back with a sigh.  

 _Bring a date_ pops up immediately, quickly followed with a flippant _You know something something back on the horse_.

“Goddammit,” Alex mutters, rubbing at her forehead.  Nearly two months past breaking up with Maggie and she still doesn’t know a single queer woman in the whole of National City who wasn’t friends with Maggie first.

“Kara!” Alex yells as she flops down into a chair and waits the second and a half it takes for Kara to speed into the room.  “Can you be my plus one to a party tonight?”

“Tonight as in tonight?”

“No, the other tonight that isn’t actually tonight,” Alex says with a groan.  “Yes, tonight as in tonight.”

“I promised Winn--”

“--that you’d go to that museum thing,” Alex finishes for her.   “I knew that.”

“You could take James?”  Kara pushes at Alex’s chair until she can sit down across from her and kick her feet up into Alex’s lap.  

“To a party full of lesbians,” Alex says flatly.  “Sure, great idea.”

“Oh,” Kara says.  “That party.  Are you sure you want to go?”

“You were encouraging me to start dating again literally yesterday,” Alex grumbles.

“Yeah, but isn’t this that party full of, um,” Kara pauses, forehead crinkling.  “Gay cops?”

“They’re not _all_ cops,” Alex says.  She pauses and groans and drops her forehead into her hands.  “Should I go?  I shouldn’t go, right?  All of them know Maggie--”

“Maggie doesn’t get a monopoly on all the gay women in National City,” Kara says sternly.  “If you want to go, you should go.  If you want to stay home, you can do that too.  But if you don’t go, you should not go because you just don’t want to go out, not because you think Maggie got to keep all of the lesbians in the breakup.”

“I need a date,” Alex whines.  “Do you think M’Gann would be willing to come back for--”

“Alex,” Kara says, digging her heel into Alex’s ribcage.  “Stop that.  You can check Tinder like the rest of the world.”

“I hate you,” Alex says. She scrubs her hands over her face, staring down at the toes of her boots for long seconds.  “Can I borrow the portal thing Cisco gave you?”

“What?”  Kara blinks at her for a split second before her eyes go wide.  “You aren’t going to--”

Alex sucks in a sharp breath and stands abruptly, dislodging Kara’s feet and ignoring her disgruntled whine.  “Just let me--”

“She’s probably in like the twelfth century or something!”

“Kara!” Alex all but stomps her foot and whine, and Kara sighs and speeds away, returning in a split second with the portal.  

“If you break it--”

“I buy it, yeah, yeah,” Alex mutters.  She hipchecks Kara out of the way to make room and opens a portal in the empty space in the center of her lab.  “It’ll be fine,” she throws over her shoulder as she hops delicately through the portal, disappearing into blue light.

“This is going to go terribly,” Kara says with another sigh.

 

* * *

 

Alex is twenty minutes into pacing around her apartment and three minutes shy of the absolute last minute when she can leave, show up fashionably late to the party, and not look like she was actively trying to avoid the entire thing.

She pivots on her heel and turns back from her kitchen and nearly walks into the portal that just opened between her couch and kitchen table.

“Shit,” she mumbles, slamming to a halt and barely managing to not walk straight into Sara, who’s just stepped out.

“Nice to see you, too, Danvers,” Sara says mildly. One side of her mouth is hitched up in a familiar smirk and Alex clears her throat, too loudly and too obviously.

“Hey,” Alex manages.  “Thanks for--”

“Being your awesome hot date to your ex’s gay Christmas party?”

“It’s not technically Maggie’s party and she isn’t going to be there but everyone there _does_ know her--”

“You know, the rambling thing is cute, but you should really rein it in if you want this to work,” Sara says, grinning wider when Alex’s teeth clack shut.  “You can brief me on the way,” Sara adds, looping a hand through Alex’s elbow and heading to the door.

“Oh, boy,” Alex mumbles.

 

* * *

 

“So,” Sara says, tucking her hands into her pockets and peering around the street corner towards the bar.  “How do you want to play this?”

“What?”  Alex blinks at her.  “Play what?”

“You asked me to be your fake date to a party full of your ex-fiancee’s friends.”  Sara rolls her eyes.  “Clearly you want to accomplish something here. So what’s the plan?”

“Oh,” Alex says.  “I hadn’t actually thought that far ahead.  I haven’t ever really--”

“Clearly,” Sara says.  She tugs at the edges of Alex’s jacket, straightening the collar casually and unbuttoning one more button of her shirt.  “Leave it,” she says, slapping at Alex’s hand when it automatically moves to redo the button.  “That’s just enough to make this look like _something_ without looking like too much.  Just keep your cool, stick to as much of the truth as you can, and you’ll be fine.”

“The truth where you’re a time-traveling assassin from a parallel and we met at a wedding that was crashing by super-Nazis?”

“You would make the _worst_ spy, Danvers,” Sara says.  “We met at a wedding.  Friends in common.  Don’t go into detail, just let them think what they will. “

“Fine,” Alex says after a long moment.  “I can do that.”  She sucks in a deep breath and shakes her shoulders loose.

“It’s a party, not a bar fight,” Sara says, even as she holds out one hand for Alex to take.  

“Bar fights are way easier,” Alex says. She takes Sara’s hand anyways and sets off down the sidewalk.  “I can’t punch my way out of this.”

“I mean, we _can_ ,” Sara says, free hand on the door to the bar. “But it’s probably a bad idea.”  She pulls the door open and tugs Alex through into the heat of the bar.

“Alex!” Jackie spots her immediately, bounding over with a mostly-empty drink in hand.  “And Alex’s--”

“I’m Sara,” Sara says, flashing a smile at her and holding out a hand.  “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, Alex’s Sara,” Jackie says, grinning wide at Alex and nodding with wholly unsubtle approval.  “Come on in, grab a drink!”

She hooks a hand through Sara’s elbow and pulls them both over towards the bar.  Sara glances over her shoulder and winks at Alex, who pulls in a deep breath and forces her shoulders to relax.

 

* * *

 

Two hours in and Alex is edging towards drunk, the tension finally releasing from her spine and Sara an easy presence against her side.  Easy and comfortable and warm and really, really nice.  Alex swallows another sip of whiskey and it heats the inside of her chest, reaching for the warmth working its way from her left shoulder and arm and hip and leg where Sara’s pressed easily against her.

She’s been an excellent date, to no surprise, charming and sharp and, surrounded by the gaggle of incredibly queer woman that make up the Christmas party, completely unashamed to flash her very impressive biceps whenever necessary.  

There’s a flutter of movement over across the bar, Jackie pushed in close with someone but very clearly not having a fun conversation.  Alex is about to look away and back over to where Sara’s drawling away to a rapt audience about some pull-up workout that she does when Jackie straightens up and shoots a look right over at Alex, wide-eyed and strained.

Alex pauses, jaw tightening slowly, and suddenly Jackie bustles over her way, nearly spilling her drink and muttering out a hurried apology to everyone before she grabs for Alex’s forearm and presses in close to whisper too loudly in her ear.  

“Jackie, what--”

“Maggie just texted Erin,” Jackie hurries out.  “She’s on her way here now.”

It cuts through Alex’s buzz and Sara’s conversation, the whole collective going uncomfortably silent under the obnoxious Christmas music.

“Shit,” Alex mutters.

“Come on, let’s go, you gotta go,” Jackie says, yanking at Alex’s arm until she nearly stumbles.  

“Whoa there, J,” Sara says sharply.  She wraps a steadying arm around Alex’s waist, holding tight.  

“Maggie’s on her way here,” Alex says, a hand on Sara’s arm.  “We should go.”

“She doesn’t get to drive you away from your friends.”  The muscles in Sara’s jaw clench visibly and her arm stays tight around Alex’s waist, keeping her in place.  

“Sara, please,” Alex says softly.  “Not today, okay?  Let’s just head out.”

An unmarked police cruiser pulls to a stop in front of the bar and Jackie lets out a far too loud, belligerent, “ _Fuck!_ ”

The entire party of women looks panicked and a rush of warmth, different and quiet and familiar, passes over Alex because for the first time since moving to National City to be near her sister she has _friends_.  

“I got it,” Sara says firmly, nodding at Jackie and everyone else and tugging on Alex’s hand.  “Good meeting you all, see you round!”  She takes Alex’s hand and sets off towards the rear of the bar, tugging her along at a jog.  They disappear around a corner just as the front door opens and Maggie walks in with slumped shoulders and a sad half-smile that still makes Alex's chest hurt.  

“Shit, shit, shit,” Alex mutters, flattening herself against the wall. They’re at a dead end, with nothing but the doors to the bathrooms in front of them and a bar full of Maggie behind them.

“Have some faith, Danvers,” Sara says with a wink, and before Alex can say anything, Sara’s shoving her towards the end of the hallway.  There’s a narrow window to the alley behind the bar high above them and Sara leaps easily up to it, holding herself up easily with one hand and prying it open with the other.  She reaches down and offers her other hand to Alex, who gapes at her and then back at the bar and then back at Sara, who’s hanging casually from the edge of a window that probably hasn’t been opened in twenty years and waiting for Alex to accept her hand.

“What are you _doing_?” Alex hisses even as she grabs Sara’s hand and hauls herself up easily.  She pushes her way awkwardly through the window, only blushing a tiny and reasonable amount when she’s fairly certain she feels Sara’s hand on her ass helping her through.  She manages to get ahold of the windowsill from the other side and swing down to land on her feet, already glaring back up to where Sara is gracefully flipping through the window.

“Saving your ass,” Sara says, landing with a wink and blowing her hair out of her face.  “Or are you going to try and get back with her?”

“I--” Alex starts, and then she sighs. “No.  I’m not.”

“Then listen to your friends.”  Sara jerks her head back towards the bar and everyone who’d invited Alex to the party.  “You’re not up for facing her right now, and from the looks of her, neither is she.”

“Right,” Alex mumbles.  She takes a deep breath and rubs at her forehead.  “I should go home.”

“Yep,” Sara says cheerfully.  She shoves her hands into her jacket pockets and pops her elbow out for Alex.  “I’ll walk you.”

“I don’t need--” Alex starts; she cuts herself off and loops her hand through Sara’s elbow.  “Thank you.”

“What are friends for?” Sara knocks her shoulder against Alex’s.  “Aside from last minute party dates and being totally bailed on after having spectacular wedding sex.”

“Oh my God,” Alex says, clearing her throat loudly.  It echoes along the empty street.  Sara laughs and slings an arm around Alex’s waist.  Alex wiggles her arm free and hesitates for only a moment before dropping it to settle easily across Sara’s shoulder.  She hipchecks Sara without breaking stride and keeps her eyes staring straight ahead even when Sara practically bodyslams her in retaliation.

“So,” Sara says, slow and lazy as they stand in front of Alex’s apartment door.  

“So,” Alex echoes.  She shoves her hands into her own back pockets, disengaging the contact between them and taking a deep breath.  Sara doesn’t step away, linking her hands behind her back and raising an eyebrow up at Alex.

“Mission accomplished for the evening?” Sara says.  

“Something like that.”  Alex bites down on the inside of her cheek, reaching for something intelligent to say, a way to thank Sara for leaving her time machine in a parallel universe to be a plus one to a holiday party.  “You have to get back?”

Sara shrugs, rolling her shoulders slowly enough that the shift of muscle under her shirt catches in the streetlights shining through the windows, and Alex accidentally bite down too hard on the inside of her cheek.  One side of Sara’s mouth lifts, eyebrow following suit, and Alex flushes and takes a step back and collides with her front door.

“I’ve got all the time in the world.”  Sara follows Alex’s retreat and stops just short, hands still clasped together behind her back, allowing Alex the space and opportunity to turn her down.  

“Because you have a time machine,” Alex says, nodding too quickly.  “That you’re in charge of. For time traveling.”

“That doesn’t really stop getting cute, you know.”  Sara tilts her head to one side and waits, watching uncertainty and embarrassment and then uncertainty again wash across Alex’s face until solid determination, the set to her jaw she’d had when she’d planned to storm an entire army to get her sister back with nothing more than a knife and a smile, settles and stays.

“Are you sure?” Alex says quietly.  “I’m still-- before Maggie I had never really, with anyone who mattered, so I-- I’m not really sure what I’m doing.  If it’s a good idea with a friend.”

Sara laughs, loud and sure, and finally reaches forward to pull one of Alex’s hands free of her pockets, holding it in both of hers up in front of Alex’s face, traces the scarred knuckles and the lines of her fingers.  “Trust me, you _really_ do know what you’re doing with these.”

“Oh my God.” Alex clears her throat and yanks her hand away.  “We’re in the hall--my neighbors could--”

“Then by all means,” Sara says.  She pauses and licks at her lips and pulls on the neckline of Alex’s shirt, lets her fingers brush against the skin covering her collarbone and smiles wolfishly when Alex shudders.  “Let’s not stay in the hall.”

She lets her hands fall to Alex’s waist and digs the keys out of Alex’s jeans, hips holding Alex in place as she unlocks the door and lets it swing open into Alex’s apartment.  

 

* * *

 

Alex wakes up sprawled sideways across her bed with the blanket tucked neatly around her.   The apartment is empty and halfway to a mess, her clothes gathered in a pile next to the bathroom door, the books she knows they knocked off of the coffee table entirely have been stacked haphazardly back onto it, out of order but at least not on the floor.

There’s a cooling pot of coffee on the counter, half empty and accompanied by a used mug and a note scrawled directly onto the back of a DEO report cover sheet.

_Next time it can be your turn to sneak out.  Take care of those hands, Danvers._

 


End file.
